In the Breath of the Waterfall

 

 It’s good standing in the breath of the waterfall. The spray feels like bolts of silk flung into the air. The roar divides into complex phrases and elongated sentences. If I stand here long enough, I’ll become a water creature, freshly gilled. Or at least amphibious, frog-faced to face an uneasy world. Days of midsummer rain have refueled the waterfall. A year ago, it was dry, a hulk of boulders without obvious purpose. I climbed up the wall of stone and stood where the brook had flowed all winter. The July heat had sunk into the naked outcroppings. Now it’s a thrust of power nothing organic can challenge. I want to live in its favor forever. At least for a moment or two longer. If I slip on this plank walkway, I’ll flush downstream all the way to the serious river in the valley below. That’s only a couple of miles, but the abrasion of the rocks would render me naked to the bone. That has its own attractions, but for now I’ll just inhale the mist, a membrane between dream and dreamer, porous but tough..

Slime Mold

 

 

You mistake it for an upchuck.

This tacky shapeless construct

aggregates independent cells

to protest through sheer disgust.

It objects to climate change

 

and to the dogma of structure

that dominates sentient minds.

This eukaryotic creature,

neither flora nor fauna,

adheres to bark mulch placed

 

for aesthetic effect behind

the chic brick shop that sells

fair trade goods from Peru.

This temporary alliance

of cells can creep elsewhere,

 

if most of the cells agree

on direction, speed, and purpose.

Sensitive to airborne chemicals,

alert to possible sources

of food, it can change its shape

 

from one abstract expression

to another. It may form stalks

of fruiting bodies flinging spores.

It eats bacteria, compost, yeast,

and even competing fungi.

 

Aren’t you sorry you mistook

this elaborate creation for bile?

Although this fuligo septica

is commonly called “dog vomit”

by other thoughtless people,

 

you should apologize before

its many cells decide to trace

you to your source and slime you,

rendering everything you believe

that revolting shade of yellow.